The Inner Circle

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I'm Jenna Fisher.

And I'm Angela Kinsey.

We were on The Office together.

And we're best friends.

And now we're doing the Ultimate Office Rewatch podcast just for you.

Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind-the-scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you.

We're the office ladies.

Hello.

Hi.

Jenna, are you in the inner circle?

I'm probably not.

I think I've spent my whole life outside of the inner circle.

Same, which is why we became best friends.

This is season seven, episode 23, written by Charlie Grandi and directed by Matt Sohn.

Angela, when I read you this summary, I think it's going to become very clear to you that Ainsley wrote it, starting with the very first word.

Okay.

Enigmatic.

new boss D'Angelo.

Did you see?

I would not write enigmatic.

That's a five-star vocal word.

Enigmatic new boss D'Angelo seems to have an inner circle of favorite male employees, which has caused a divide in the office.

Later, D'Angelo's competitive side lands him in the hospital.

Pretty straightforward.

Let's jump into fast fact number one.

This episode aired on May 5th, 2011.

It was originally titled Sexism.

Oh, but Greg gave the note that he thought that the sexism storyline was kind of a nice plot twist.

And if we named it sexism, then the title would give that twist away.

So they changed it to inner circle.

Randy shared with us that this episode originally came in one minute too long.

One minute.

And they had to trim it?

Well, first, Greg and Paul pushed the studio to let them have an extra minute of airtime.

But that would mean that the studio would have to sell one minute less ads.

So guess what they said?

They said, nope, that was a hard pass.

They suggested that we cut the credits down because we've done that before.

But Greg and Paul felt that it was really important to establish the new credit sequence with Steve leaving.

So eventually they found a way to edit the episode down to the standard 21 minutes and 35 seconds of running time.

Well, if you guys have the DVDs, there's some real nuggets and deleted scenes, and now that makes sense to me.

And I'm going to share some of them in this episode.

Very good.

Fast fact number two, this episode was a bottle show.

We've talked about those before.

And because it was so contained, we were actually able to shoot this episode in only four days rather than the usual five days.

I bet everyone was excited about that.

Well, we did not get a day off.

Oh.

We used the extra day to do that extra shooting on Goodbye Michael.

Oh.

Now, you know, these bottle shows, the idea of them is that they're supposed to be very easy, very drama-free episodes.

Yeah.

No big like stunts, no big to-dos, no craziness, no locations, nothing.

Well,

this was not a drama-free episode.

First, we had the running time drama.

Right.

That was a bunch of emails back and forth.

Then Randy said there was a standards and practices drama.

For what?

You're going to have to wait for it.

Oh, I'm racking my brain.

What did they

have to say about?

I know.

There was an ad sales drama.

There was a music drama.

And we'll get to it.

There was a stunt on

terribly wrong.

Yeah, that's the one I thought you were going to lead with because you guys, we almost like seriously injured Will Farrell.

Yeah, we'll get to it.

But yeah, it was crazy.

Fast fact number three: this was our first episode without Steve.

It was our last episode with Will Farrell.

We got a fan question from Katie B in Dallas, Texas, who wanted to know, how was it the first day on set without Steve?

Katie, it was bizarre.

It was super weird.

Yeah.

When I watched the credit sequence in this episode and he wasn't in it, I was

crushed.

Like,

and it kind of reminds me, like, that's what it was like to show up.

And then he wasn't in hair and makeup.

He wasn't there to talk to us about his favorite pizza.

Yeah.

It was super odd.

And we loved Will.

Like, thank goodness for Will and the positive energy he brought.

But it was just flat out weird going to work without the main person we had all sort of been working around as a cast, his character.

It was, it was really, it was really crazy, Katie.

Well, listen, that's all I got.

Fast Facts were literally fast today.

I have a new DVD alert.

Oh, like, why do I say alert?

Alert!

Breaking news.

Breaking news.

We are now on disc five of season seven.

For those of you who are re-watching with the DVD box set, here are a few of the features on this DVD.

In addition to the usual deleted scenes, there is a commentary, and there is also a great blooper reel and the webisode series, The Third Floor.

Angela, when Randy sent us all his facts for this episode this week, He said he was very sad to put that last DVD in his player because, you know, he leaves us at the end of the season.

Yeah.

So we had Steve exit during the season and Randy exited at the end of the season.

It was an emotional last few episodes.

Yeah, it was.

All right.

Well, should we take a break and then get right to it?

Let's do it.

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Hey, everyone, it's Jenna.

I'm in Chicago.

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This episode opens with a conference room meeting.

D'Angelo is laying down the law, and anyone who doesn't like how he does things can just walk right out the door.

But they're all things people like.

Like he wants to end the workday at five.

He wants to have ice cream on Thursdays.

He tells Daryl, I'm going to give you a full ride.

We're going to pay for you to go to business school.

Deal with it.

At 23 seconds, I don't know if you noticed, but Daryl is back to wearing his shirt and tie.

I did notice.

I also caught what I think might be an improv.

When Daryl says seriously, D'Angelo says stone cold seriously.

I looked in the script.

That line was not there.

In the script, D'Angelo just says, no, I'm kidding.

Yes, I'm serious.

So I wonder if this is a little bit of Will Farrell.

I absolutely loved Craig Robinson's performance in this whole episode.

If you watch this episode, you have to watch all of his reactions in the background, every line he delivers.

I don't know.

This was like an I Love Craig Robinson episode for me.

He is great.

And I love the Daryl storyline of him going to night school.

I do have a little bit of a bust on Craig.

What's that?

At one minute, you can totally see him starting to break.

His shoulders are shaking because I think this part wasn't scripted as well.

When D'Angelo's saying, and Toby, you're getting a new chair, whether he likes it or not.

Toby says, Thanks.

And D'Angelo says, Don't thank me.

Hey, don't thank me, guy.

That wasn't in the script.

And you can see Craig's like shoulders like shaking.

I mean, we should say that Will like would improvise here and there and we would all lose it.

Will can read the phone book and be fine.

I mean, every line he says is funny.

All right.

So now the episode begins.

D'Angelo and Daryl are arriving to work and Pam is going to interrupt their chat.

to tell him about her friend Carla, who might make a great executive assistant.

I remember that the NBC photographer was here this day when we were shooting this, and they took pictures of this scene, and I charged them.

I bet.

Well, you know, Pam's runner with the resumes was bigger.

There's more of it in deleted scenes.

I'm going to share some of it.

But one of the things that tickled me, Jenna, is I'm such a nerd for this, for whatever character gets to say the title of a movie or an episode.

I just think it's so cool.

And Pam gets to say the title of this episode.

Really?

Yeah.

She says to Jim, oh, is that what he says in your little inner circle meetings?

Oh, yes, you're right.

I was like, ah, she said the title.

I'm a dork for stuff like that.

You point it out every time.

It's very cute.

Okay.

We got a fan catch from Aiden W in Portland, Oregon, who said, there are three Carlas in the office.

There is Carla, the mission trip leader.

Carla, Pam's executive assistant friend.

And coming up, Carla Fern, Andy's agent.

What are the writers' obsession with the name Carla?

I've personally never met a Carla in my life.

Wow, I didn't realize there were three.

Yeah, three Carlas.

That's such a great catch.

Andy and Pam are convinced there's an inner circle.

Jim's like, no, there's no inner circle.

And Kevin's like, he only says that because he's in it.

And then Kevin is so proud.

He's like, mom, I'm in the inner circle.

I loved that Kevin was in the inner circle.

It was such a nice twist.

Unexpected.

Someone who is not in the inner circle or who doesn't want to be in the inner circle is Dwight.

And D'Angelo is doing everything he can to get Dwight on his good side.

He tries to bring him a coffee from downstairs.

Dwight throws it in the trash.

Not interested.

Not interested.

As soon as D'Angelo tries to entice Dwight with like some beers and he said they can listen to Automatic for the People on his jukebox, lady, I could not stop laughing because I have a little bit of backstory.

About the album, Automatic for the People.

What?

Okay.

I don't know this album who sings this album oh my god it's rem you do know this album you do i promise you okay okay so it came out while i was in college in october 1992 you guys i know i'm a dinosaur but when it came out i was going through a breakup and i'm sorry i laughed but i just like i know these moments were like oh this was your breakup album yes did you listen to it just so much oh there was one song that instantly takes me back to that time it starts with this piano The song is called Night Swimming.

I need you to hear a little bit of it.

And then I am going to read you an entry from my journal during this breakup.

You have made my day.

Night swimming

deserves a quiet night.

Okay, okay, you're getting the idea right now.

I'm in a mood.

You're in a mood.

I'm feeling it.

I'm almost curled up in a ball.

Okay, now I'm opening my journal.

Okay.

Here we go.

It's super old.

First of all, you guys should know I hadn't been dating this guy very long, so I wasn't like super heartbroken.

I was more just really ticked off.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

So picturing me listening tonight's swimming.

I'm ticked off.

Here we go.

October 17th, 1992.

Okay.

Oh my God.

Okay.

I know I said that I wasn't going to talk about him anymore, but he has stooped too far.

He is a lying snake, a shell of a man, and a liar.

He is hanging out with his ex-girlfriend.

He has done nothing but lie.

It is going to take all that I have to be cordial to him.

Oh boy, he disgusts me.

I need to broaden my horizons.

What do I care?

This is all so trivial.

I have a wonderfully attractive life ahead of me, and I am grateful that Mr.

Self-Centered isn't a part of it.

Amen.

Oh wow.

Oh

wow.

Am I the dorkiest person ever?

It's going to take all I have to be cordial to him.

Lady, I need you to write like a young young adult novel series.

This one is called Mr.

Self-Centered.

Then you've got another one called Mr.

Maybe.

Yeah.

So we, do you know what I'm saying?

It's a series of just the dating foibles

of this

young woman who is taking her power back.

I didn't even tell him off.

Like, I just, I was cordial.

Take that.

I'm going to be not friendly to you.

Yeah.

All you get from me, mister, is cordial.

That's right.

And maybe a snarky look.

You showed him.

Well, there was a moment from my journal.

I hope you guys enjoyed it.

What's the end of this story?

Did you ever run into him?

Were you cordial?

Yeah, I had to run into him all the time, and I was cordial and a bit dismissive.

So don't mess with me

because you're going to get someone who's maybe a little bored, but polite.

Yeah.

One other thing happening in this scene.

Three minutes, 56 seconds.

Ant Farm still on Dwight's desk.

I appreciate the commitment to a prop.

I know, me too.

D'Angelo is going to say, try as he may, Dwight just wants nothing to do with him.

You know, after D'Angelo's talking head, Dwight would have had one.

There was one in the shooting draft.

There was also some candy bag alts for it.

I want to read one of them because it really cracked me up.

Because I can hear Rain saying it as Dwight.

You know what I mean?

Here it is.

D'Angelo is a fine manager, but I don't do my job for the approval of my employer.

I do it because if I didn't do it, some idiot would be doing it.

And this way, that idiot is out of a job.

Ha ha, idiot.

I appreciate that talking head.

I wish that had stayed in.

I wonder if that was one of the things in the minute that we had to lose.

Could be.

D'Angelo is going to call his inner circle into his office.

They're going to play mini basketball and discuss two big business strategies.

One, go after the biggest client in the state or 50,000 tiny clients.

50,000?

50,000.

There are not 50,000 small businesses in Scranton that need a paper supplier.

I know.

Insanity.

Andy is watching through the window.

He's getting super jealous.

This was part of a bigger runner, lady.

Oh,

there was a deleted runner between Pam and Andy.

I remember shooting these.

Yeah, so Pam is gathering resumes, and Andy turns one in.

He hands it to her, and Pam looks at it and says, Who is Bernard Andrews?

Andy says, C'est moi.

And Pam says, You want to be D'Angelo's executive assistant?

And Andy says, No, God, no, I can maybe type 15 words a minute, but I need D'Angelo to think of me as more than just the funny guy.

And when he reads my resume, he'll be like, Wait, this stud did Outward Bound and National Outdoor Leadership School.

I have to meet him.

Then I'll poke my head in and I'll be like, surprise, you already have.

And then I'll be his guy.

And Pam says, if you really think that will work, I'll put your resume in the pile.

Do you really think that will work?

And Andy is so frustrated.

He goes, what other option do I have, Pam?

And then he kind of mopes away.

I remember doing these scenes with Ed because I did not often get scenes with Ed.

I know.

He's desperate not to be the funny guy.

There's a whole other twist happening in the office, which is Ryan has told D'Angelo that he's the department head and that Kelly works for him.

He's like, all right, keep up the good work.

And Ryan says, my pleasure, my treasure, which by the way was scripted.

I went and looked.

Well, Kelly is not excited about this.

She does not like, no, this lie.

And they have a very funny scene.

And in the middle of it, D'Angelo enters and Ryan starts to reprimand her.

And she does go along with it.

But apparently she's got her angle, which is he now has to be the perfect boyfriend.

Like he has to go with her to have dinner with her mom and like all these other things.

Yeah, she's getting something in return.

She hopes.

Well, now we're going to get to a scene in the break room that is going to be your first drama alert.

Oh.

Breaking news, drama.

Is this about the Coca-Cola?

Yes.

It is about the Coca-Cola.

In this scene, Dwight is drinking a a cola.

D'Angelo comes in and he says, you know, my cousin cracked the secret formula for a certain popular cola I shall not name.

But in the original script, D'Angelo's line was this.

Ola cola, you know, my cousin cracked the secret formula for Coke.

True story.

I've never had to buy a Coke.

I just drink my cousin's.

Tastes exactly like Coke, but better.

No bubbles.

Lavendery aftertaste.

Packed with zinc.

Well, when we turned that original script in, standards and practices went insane.

They said that ad sales had just placed a huge deal for Pepsi products.

Oh, and we could not mention Coke.

Well, our production coordinator, Meg Shave, we've mentioned her before, she tried to argue that the word Coke was a universally accepted term for soda, you know, kind of like Kleenex or make a Xerox for make a copy.

Yeah, like when the brand name becomes like associated with what people call the thing.

Yes.

Yeah.

We did not win this battle.

Oh, Meg.

Meg tried, but Randy said that this went all the way up the chain and that we got a tersely worded letter from the studio lawyers that said, do not use Coke.

This is one management feels pretty strongly towards.

You know what?

It sounds like they were using my strategy of like cordial mixed with some snark.

They were.

They were giving it the Angela Kinsey Heartbreak.

College journal writing treatment.

Rolls off your time.

It really does.

It's so easy to recall and say.

So in the end, Phil Shea had to give Rain like just a generic looking soda can and they had to rewrite the scene.

Well, I was curious about this scene because when D'Angela at the end says, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and like runs out, I had to know if that was scripted.

It was not.

At the end of the scene, Dwight just says no.

D'Angelo says yes, and it just simply says he runs out before Dwight can respond.

So once again, Will, being the funny guy he is, made it even funnier than what was on the page.

Well, the next thing that would have happened in the episode, you guys, is D'Angelo would have gone to Pam and asked for all the resumes that she's been gathering.

There's a very funny scene and deleted scenes.

I'm not going to play it, Jenna, because it's one of those that you have to see.

Yes.

I'm learning.

It's a visual.

It's a visual.

But basically, Pam says, D'Angelo, I look through them all and I put the most qualified people at the top to save you some time.

And he takes the stack that she's so carefully put together and he messes it all about like the way you would dump a deck of cards on a desk and just messes them around and says, no, I have a science to this.

Thank you.

I'm doing this.

And she looks at him like, are you freaking kidding me?

And then this would have cut to a Jim and Pam joint talking head.

It's great.

Pam is so over D'Angelo.

She has had it.

And also, we learned a little nugget about Michael in Colorado.

And I thought we should hear it.

You know what?

I'm done trying.

You can have him.

Okay.

You felt the same way about Michael, right?

And then time passed, and what happened?

He just named his new puppy after you.

Pamela Begsley.

It's a beagle.

It's really freaking cute.

Oh my gosh, I forgot about that.

Michael and Holly have a puppy named Pamela Beeksley.

So cute.

It makes me so happy to imagine that Michael has gotten a puppy with Holly.

I know.

It's like they're starting their family.

That's the first thing you do.

Yes, you get the puppy.

You get a pet together.

Oh, my gosh.

Dang you, one minute.

That should have stayed in.

Well, now the inner circle will start reviewing the resumes.

And Andy's resume was right at the top.

Remember his resume for Bernard Andrews?

Yes.

In the episode, Jim only says part of this sentence, but if they had been able to leave everything in, this is what he would have said.

Uh-oh, this former administrative assistant misspelled both administrative and assistant.

Tough break, Bernard Andrews.

Oh, I cast his aside.

Oh, no.

You know, Angela, when I saw them reviewing these resumes, it took me back to how many resumes I have written for myself, both as an administrative assistant and also as an actor.

I went and looked at my first acting resume.

Oh, you did.

The one that I really had to pad.

You know, I had to like, I did this thing where every production I had done in college,

I would put that down as a credit, but then rather than saying I did it at college, I said the name of the theater in my college because then it made it seem like I'd performed in more places.

Yeah.

All these little tricks.

I really patted my special skills.

Lady, I was just going to say, I'm going to read you my special skills

because I was slightly shocked.

Please.

Here were the special skills that I put on my resume.

There's only three.

These are the three things that I felt I could do very well.

Okay.

Water skiing.

What?

I was a very good water skier.

That's true.

That's a skier.

I could slalop ski.

You would go go to Lake of the Ozarks, yeah.

So I could do it if there was a role.

What is this role that requires the special skill water skiing?

I don't know.

Animal handling.

Well, I liked animals.

I thought I could be good at.

What if they, I don't know, what if they handed you a python?

You're like, I was kind of talking about cats.

Finally, bowling.

Oh, you are a good bowler.

I am.

We still have yet to have an office ladies bowling league, which I really want to do someday.

Why aren't we doing that?

I want it so badly.

I want.

Do Sam and Cassie bowl?

You guys, do you bowl?

There's four of us.

I want to office a bowling jacket.

Oh, yeah, we bowl.

You do?

For sure.

You guys, why are we not in a bowling league together like Tuesday nights and then we compete against other people?

Yeah.

Like a pitcher of beer and office ladies bowling.

I want it to happen.

We could definitely bowl against some of the other podcasts.

Do you think so?

We could take on Conan.

I believe that.

He's too tall to be a good bowler, right?

Yeah, his center of gravity.

I don't know.

He probably bounces it halfway down the thing.

Okay, we got to make this happen.

And definitely we need matching jackets.

We need bowling bag balls.

Wait, wait, wait.

We need bowling bag balls?

We need bags.

We need bowling bags.

Bowling ball bags.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know what the other thing is, but.

I went with it.

You know what I meant.

I did.

I think I might have had water skiing too.

Well, someone in this pile of resumes listed juggling.

Yeah.

And they start mocking it, but then D'Angelo says, I am an avid juggler.

Yeah.

He says, I actually perform a motivational juggling routine.

And guess what, guys?

He's going to show it to everybody, but he needs a big space.

He needs like an 18 hundo square feet.

Well, why don't we take a break?

And when we come back, we're going to discuss this motivational juggling routine.

Cue up your evanescence everybody.

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I like them as an afternoon treat.

And when your teenagers come home hungry, guess what's real easy to give them?

A little protein waffle.

They say you can fuel your morning, but you can also fuel your afternoon.

Sure can.

Head to your local grocery store to fuel your morning with Ego protein waffles and pancakes available at retailers nationwide.

We are back.

D'Angelo has gone to his car and you guys, unfortunately, his juggling stuff wasn't in there.

So he can't do his routine, right?

Yeah, that's what you would think.

Right.

And he's like, you know what?

No worries.

I've got

a drawer of juggling balls.

Like, I totally believe it.

I do too.

So he tosses D'Angelo a few, and D'Angelo does like his version of the Matrix, like getting it out of the way.

And he's like, I'm sorry, but I do not touch another juggler's instruments.

Yes.

But you know what?

He's got the music.

Why doesn't he just do the routine without the balls?

Yeah.

I mean, we're all here.

We should do it.

We should do it.

And so he does, everyone.

An elaborate pantomime of juggling.

He's incredible.

When he says, Phyllis, don't move.

He's like throwing the balls back and forth at her head.

Okay, I want to point out this is one of the scenes.

You can watch this scene and watch all the fake juggling, then watch it and just watch Craig Robinson's face.

Okay.

It's my favorite reactions.

Lady, we got a fan question from Alyssa D.

in Erie, Pennsylvania.

I am obsessed with the scene where D'Angelo does his juggling routine.

Was it choreographed or did Will Farrell improvise this?

Well, Alyssa, this was not improvised.

It was totally scripted.

And here's what it said in the shooting draft.

D'Angelo hits play on Jim's computer.

Evan Essence, Bring Me to Life, starts playing, and D'Angelo starts pretending to juggle to the music.

People aren't sure what to do.

Kevin Mimes tossing him a ball.

Now, in the episode, he actually hits play on the boombox at reception, but that's all it said in the script.

But I remember, Jenna, because we all had to have reactions that they choreographed this with him.

Yes, we rehearsed this, not him juggling.

I remember the first time we did a take,

he started doing that insane juggle miming.

But we did have him walk around to all the different spots where he was going to land so that the camera would know where he would be.

Right.

So we got more fan questions about this episode.

Angela Jennifer M.

in San Antonio, Texas said, how was Evanescence's song Bring Me to Life chosen to be the song for this routine?

This was my favorite band when I was a teen and my inner goth began squealing when I heard it in this episode.

Never in a million years would I have imagined that their music would be featured in a comedy show.

Aurora F from California said, how much did it cost to feature the song in this episode?

Well, guess what?

Music drama.

Oh, yeah?

I wouldn't say drama.

Not so much drama, but it was just like another way that this little bottle show was more complex than it normally would need to be.

So, the original pitch from Charlie Grandi in his very first writer's draft was that the song that would be played would be Meatloaf's Paradise by the Dashboard Lights.

Okay.

Randy said they didn't even try to get clearance for that.

There's no way we're affording that song.

So, super pricey.

Super pricey.

Meatloaf, super pricey.

The next thing that they wrote was Sting's Desert Rose.

Well, I guess the NBC Universal Music Supervisor, her name is Carrie, she reached out to Sting's management.

Sting was like, for sure, you can have it for $60,000.

But I guess we had used quite a bit of licensed music in season seven.

And the studio was like, you guys, you are never allowed to spend more than $50,000 per song anymore.

We're putting a cap on it.

Spending cap.

Yeah.

And allowance now.

That's right.

They put a cap on it, the end.

So for the shooting draft, Charlie put in the Evanescence song, Bring Me to Life.

And guess how much it was?

$50,000.

Yay, we did it.

But they weren't sure they could get the clearance.

They got the price, but they didn't know if they could clear it.

So they did make the writers pitch some alts just in case this deal fell through.

Here are the alts: Come Sail Away by Styx.

Come Sail Away.

Okay.

Final Countdown

by Europe.

Yeah.

Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy by Big and Rich.

Huh.

Peace Train, The Dance Mix by Dolly Parton.

And Now We Are Free, The Gladiator Theme Song by Hans Zimmer.

That is a real mix of music.

Isn't it?

So I thought something would be very interesting would be to like take all these songs and put them to his juggling room and see how they all work out.

Like there's this meme.

Do you call it a meme going around where they've taken the Muppet song and they've put it to the dirty dancing final dance?

Yes.

Yes, I have seen that.

So yeah, I would love to hear one of these songs under his juggling.

Well, you know what someone did?

A fan took his juggling routine and they like CGI'd juggling balls into it.

Oh, so funny.

So you can actually watch this routine with balls.

And it's amazing when he does the thing by Phyllis's face because obviously,

that could never actually

happen.

Well, Pam is going to have some fun with this because in the break room, what do we call this?

Mocking in the break room?

I know.

Snark in the break room.

Pam is sort of making fun of D'Angelo's air juggling routine.

And guess who actually is amused by it?

Angela Martin.

Lady, I loved doing this so much.

I don't know if you remember shooting that day.

I do.

We got a fan question from Nathan S.

in Belton, Texas that made my day.

Nathan said, Jenna, did you tap into your past experience as a comedic mime to deliver your epic performance where you imitate D'Angelo's invisible juggling?

Nathan said, I've been waiting to ask this since January 2021 when Jenna shared her comedic mime experience in the Money Part 1 episode.

Oh my gosh, Nathan.

So it's funny you should ask, Nathan, because when I did my comedic juggling,

When I was in there, I shared the story of my comedic mime experience with everyone in the break room, and I started doing my comedic magic show for everyone.

It was a really fun day for me.

I also remember that we could not stop laughing in this scene.

I think I caught John breaking.

He has to turn.

He can't even look at Ed, and he's really focusing on trying not to laugh and eating his carrot.

Because when Andy says, I wrote my own companion piece to the vagina monologues called The Penis Apologies, John kept losing it.

It's also in this scene where the women really speak up and say, listen, D'Angelo is a huge sexist.

We're department heads.

Has he ever met with us?

And Pam's like, Jim, you should talk to him about it.

Yeah.

And Andy is all on board.

He says, you know what?

If he doesn't listen, he can kiss his penis goodbye.

Snip, snip.

Am I right, girls?

Angela, just a side note, can you juggle?

No.

You can't?

No.

I can't either.

My brain doesn't do that.

I can't.

The hand-eye coordination?

I have hand-eye coordination.

I play tennis.

I have a really good outside shot in basketball.

Just so you guys know, if you ever came over to my house and we played horse out in the driveway, I've got a real good shot.

You think you haven't shared that on the podcast before, but you have.

I'm very proud to share it as many times as I need to.

My best shot is a side shot.

Most people don't see that coming.

Anyway.

But no juggling.

Can't do the juggling.

I have a very sad juggling story.

Sad?

Yeah.

Did you hurt yourself?

No.

Did the ball fall on your face?

No, I.

That's what she said.

No, I broke a man's heart with my juggling.

Get out.

I did.

How?

When I was getting ready to move to Los Angeles, I had a boyfriend.

Okay.

He gave me a set of juggling balls.

As a parting gift?

Yes.

He said.

What is the metaphor there?

He was a good juggler.

Okay.

And I had always remarked on what a cool thing it was to be able to juggle.

And you met him at like Renaissance Fair?

I did not.

Were you like the beer wench at the Renaissance Fair?

Oh my gosh.

I think I met him at a bowling alley, actually.

I'm not even kidding.

We ended up being on a bowling league together as boyfriend and girlfriend.

Okay.

Okay.

He's like, remember me, don't forget me.

Here are some juggling balls.

What he said was, you know, I'm not going to see you for a while.

Okay.

And every time you miss me, go juggle my balls.

You can practice juggling.

No.

And then the next next time I see you, I'll know how much you missed me because I'll see what a good juggler you are.

Jenna, he wanted you to be a good ball handler.

Well, here's what happened.

He came into town like months after we'd said goodbye, and I had not learned to juggle at all.

Because you hadn't thought of him.

And then we broke up.

Because you should

juggle his ball.

No, because

it was, no, it was like, you know, long distance.

We did.

We didn't break up right at that trip.

Sure.

But it was, you know, it was the beginning of the end.

Right.

You know, it was going to become clear that we were going in two different directions, and it wasn't the direction where we both juggle.

Yeah.

He was going to be a juggler and I was going to be an actor and

not juggle.

I feel like there's a world where you two could have made it.

You'd be like a traveling show.

Well, come out.

You would do your clown work.

He's a doctor now.

Oh,

so well, that went a different way.

Listen, I find juggling cool.

I think it's neat.

I do.

So, you know, I was being real with him when I said I thought it was cool that he could juggle.

And I kind of still do wish I could juggle, but it clearly was not meant to be.

Wasn't meant to be, lady.

No.

Okay.

Well, where are we?

We are at Jim asking for a moment of D'Angelo's time.

And he has plenty of it because, you know what, this job's a joke.

I loved that line.

I loved it too.

I want to give a shout out to John Krasinski because the way he goes about bringing up the women are unhappy and then just trying to backpedal and then all of it, he is so good in this scene.

But then Jim kind of throws Pam under the bus.

Like what Pam and these women needed from Jim is for Jim to be an upstander.

They needed him to go in the office and say, I've noticed that you do this thing.

Let me point out that.

But he doesn't do that.

What he says is, so Angela, that's how he started.

I know, that's what I mean.

Kevin brings up Pam and then says she can be kind of a bitch.

I know.

And Jim completely is like, blah, blah, blah.

And then because

he did it wrong.

You're supposed to use your status and privilege and own what you're saying.

You're not supposed to lay it off on the people who are experiencing the sexism, right?

You're like, I've noticed, D'Angelo, that there are no women in this room.

I've noticed that Angela is a department head and you don't meet with her.

And I think that that is somewhat of an issue.

So Jim tries, he tries, but, you know, just have to say that.

I guess.

I guess I had to say that.

I have a lot of things to say today.

And by the way, I'm not done.

I've got something to say about Phyllis in a minute.

Oh, okay.

Well, D'Angelo is now going to confront the bullpen.

He's going to say, hey, I'm not a sexist, despite the rumor going around.

I do have a solitaire catch, 12 minutes, 14 seconds.

I saw it.

Kate Flannery is moving some cards around there in the background.

D'Angelo is going to ask everyone to raise their hand if they have a vagina or if they love someone who has a vagina.

Both of his hands go up.

Mm-hmm.

The scene was actually a much bigger scene, and Jenna, I thought we should hear it.

Angela and Phyllis speak up, and then they also ask Toby to weigh in.

Apparently, there's a rumor running around here that I'm a sexist.

D'Angelo, it's simply a question of respecting the work.

Kevin is invited to meetings that I'm not invited to, and I'm a more productive accountant.

You can literally look at the numbers.

Whoa, Angela.

No, no, no.

It depends what makes the math dig, D'Angelo.

I'm not a feminist, but I think that the men in this office are being given chances that the women aren't.

Right, Toby?

I mean, isn't there some policy on this?

Hazy.

I had a difficult relationship with my last boss.

Not eager

to create another hostile situation.

Whoa.

Yeah.

Also, the way Paul delivers that talking head as Toby, he puts so many spaces between the words that I kind of felt like Michael Scott.

I was like, Say it.

Well, we got a fan.

I don't know what you would call it.

I'm calling it a fan soapbox from Anna W in England.

Oh, let's hear it.

Anna said, I've held my tongue about Phyllis long enough.

Phyllis in this episode pisses me off.

Oh.

Phyllis says, quote, I'm not a feminist, but I think the men in this office are being given chances that women aren't.

Anna says, Phyllis, that

is feminism.

Equality and opportunity, equality and pay and rights is being a feminist.

You are a feminist if that's what you think, Phyllis.

Thank you, Anna.

Because I'm going to say, for some reason, I feel like feminist has become like this dirty word somehow, right?

Like somehow like being a feminist.

It's become charged.

Charged is such a good way to put it, Angela.

And it shouldn't be charged if if you just want equal opportunity, pay, and rights.

Yeah.

That's it.

The end.

Fair.

Not much more complicated than that.

Can we just get fair?

There you go.

Thank you, Anna.

I liked that.

Anna, you made her day.

You did.

At the end of this scene, D'Angelo's new executive assistant is going to arrive.

I wanted to describe this character.

per the shooting draft.

Okay.

Erin enters with a tall, gorgeous young woman, Jordan Garfield.

D'Angelo shakes her hand.

Jordan seems weirded out by the attention.

Hmm.

Well, new character alert.

Jordan was played by Cody Horn.

She has a three-episode arc on the show, and you might recognize her from the TV series Rescue Me or the movie Magic Mike.

When she enters, Pam is suspicious and immediately begins asking her about her previous work experience.

We find out she worked at anthropology, and we learned that that's Kelly's dream job.

I love it when she's like, you quit that job to come here?

And my thought was, Kelly, go apply.

They'll hire you.

But she's like, how'd you get that job?

I know.

We do learn that this is Jordan's first office job ever.

Yes.

And then the inner circle is going to gather.

And Jim is no longer invited.

He did not get a text.

Dwight got a text, but he's not interested.

Guess who did get a text?

Andy.

And boy, has he flipped.

I know.

So excited to run in there.

Jim tries to go in, sort of enters, and he gets fully kicked out.

Yeah.

Awkward.

Up next for Jim.

Andy's going to be running a meeting and it's going to cut to Jim.

And he says, so I guess this is my life.

Until I win the lottery, our Pam finally writes her young adult book series.

This is my favorite moment in the whole episode.

The horse flyer?

Oh my gosh.

Lady, I really want you to read it because the excitement Pam has.

It's so perfect.

It was so cute.

I printed out the words.

You have to read it.

I will read it.

Ready?

Mm-hmm.

So one afternoon while walking home from school, quirky 10th grader Becky Walters finds a wounded Pegasus in the woods and she becomes the horse flyer.

It's so cute.

I loved it.

Well, Randy said they had to clear that title, The Horse Flyer.

And they even had to hire a research company to look into the legal ramifications of using this name in the show.

I guess on the off chance that somewhere out in the world there was a book called The Horse Flyer?

Correct.

Here's what they responded with from their research.

The Horse Flyer.

We find no listings for a publication with this exact title with the U.S.

Library of Congress or the U.S.

Copyright Office, and a general web search found no listings for a prominent publication with this exact title.

We were given clearance to proceed.

Okay.

But, like, it fascinates me that as a writer, I wouldn't even think of that.

I would just turn it in.

That's a funny title, The Horse Flyer.

Yeah.

But then, someone in legal, someone has to clear that.

Right.

And maybe it wouldn't have cleared and they would have had to write different ones.

But I find that fascinating.

Yeah.

They would have had probably a list of alts, like the pony flyer.

Yeah, that one's.

I don't, I mean, maybe they would.

Well, after these talking heads, there would have been a scene between Jim and D'Angelo because Jim decides to try and go back in and talk to him.

And we learn what team D'Angelo plays for.

I think you should hear it.

Jim, are you going to understand me if I use a sports metaphor?

I think I probably.

You're a team.

I need team players.

And I just don't know if you're on my team.

I am definitely on your team.

Team Dunder Mifflin, here we go.

Team is called the Crazy Snakes.

Oh, okay.

Or the Matadors.

Or the Lancers.

Lancers sounds a little high school, right?

Yeah, but it's also my favorite.

Great.

Let's see if we can't work you back into the lineup.

That would be awesome.

Jordan, please show Jim out.

That's right.

I got it right here.

Jordan, please show Jim out.

Oh my gosh.

It was so funny.

Also, they did that classic reveal that they would do when they were in Michael's office where it's D'Angelo and Jim talking.

And then at the very end, you see that Jordan has been there the whole time.

What is the character of Jordan thinking on her first date?

She has no responsibilities.

You know, Jenna, she actually has a deleted talking head where she says something to the effect of, yeah, you know, so far I don't like working here.

That's amazing.

Now Ryan is reprimanding Kelly in front of D'Angelo.

She's playing along with it at first, but she can't take it anymore.

And she tells D'Angelo the truth.

And D'Angelo doesn't really care.

He's finding this whole explanation a little murky.

He calls her hysterical.

And she starts to laugh.

Do you see it?

Mindy

found that very funny.

And then he just says, you know what?

Ryan's your supervisor.

Done.

That's it now.

I know.

Now Ryan got this job.

I want everyone to know, I haven't brought it up yet, but Miles McNutt

gave this episode a C-.

Oh, Miles did not like it.

This is one of his lowest ratings so far.

But he did say, on a positive note, he said, quote, I liked that we saw more of Ryan and Kelly than we usually get to see, and that Kelly got to take a more authoritative role for a change.

Kelly's a character whose level of intelligence is always somewhat variable, especially when it comes to Ryan.

But to see her shift away from her swooning over Ryan as he fakes being her supervisor was quite satisfying.

So he did like this part.

Okay.

Well, I always love to hear what Miles McNutt was thinking.

The inner circle is starting to get really loud, and people are trying to work.

So Pam is going to ask them to quiet it down.

You know what?

She's fuming, but I would say she's also being cordial.

Mm-hmm.

Right?

Yes.

She's holding it together.

We had a fan question from Sarah W.

in Kingwood, Texas, and Ryan R.

in Woodland, California, who both asked: when Pam knocks on the door to the office to ask the guys to quiet down, there is a clear shot of the window next to the manager's office door.

And the window is slanted.

Is this to avoid seeing the holes in the ceiling or to avoid seeing glare from the lights?

What a great catch.

Yes, it is.

This is a total glare thing.

So here was the thing.

We talked before about how our set had immovable walls.

Usually when you're working on a set, you can like fly out a wall.

Like normally you'd be able to remove the whole wall to the conference room to get a better shot, but they wanted our camera operators to have to deal with the confines of the real space.

But what they did do is they made all the windows so they could slant up or slant down.

Yeah, they had a little tilty thing on the side.

And that was a trick so that you couldn't see the reflection of the camera operators in the glass.

Otherwise you would have seen them all the time.

That's right.

It's like when you take a selfie with sunglasses on.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It is just like that, Ange.

Let me relate it back to selfies.

Well, the guys are going to get back to their little mini basketball game.

They don't listen to Pam, and D'Angelo's going to invite Jim to join.

But you know, D'Angelo's been a real big talker all along.

He's a big talker about all of his basketball stuff.

And he's really showboating about how he can dunk.

And Jim's like, well, why don't we see you dunk on a real hoop?

We have one in the warehouse.

Yeah.

Jim's tired of his BS, and he's going to call him out.

Yeah, D'Angelo says, yeah, we'll set that up sometime.

And Jim's like, how about today?

How about right now?

Yeah.

And D'Angelo's like, I don't know.

And we think he's going to try to get out of it.

And then he says, well, no one has called NASA to request a liftoff.

That's right.

Game on.

Game on.

They're going to go down to the warehouse.

Jim has measured out the distance from the baseline to the free throw line, but he makes a mistake.

Did you catch it?

No.

So Jim says the free throw line is 15 feet from the baseline.

It's not.

It's 15 feet from the basket.

And the goal, yeah.

It's 19 feet from the baseline.

Oh, yeah.

I'm just saying.

Yeah.

I thought you'd be impressed.

I am very impressed.

Basketball.

I didn't know that.

Okay.

Let me confess I read that on Dunderpedia.

Oh.

Thank you, Dunderpedia.

You're welcome.

Thank you, Dundrapedia.

I would not have got that on my own.

We should also say Dwight attends because D'Angelo yells at him, yes, so loudly.

And Dwight responds to strong leadership.

When Will Farrell, as D'Angelo, yelled like that,

it was so hard not to laugh.

He's funny at yelling.

He's funny at everything.

I got a little nugget for you guys, something that wasn't scripted.

When D'Angelo says, does someone want to sit in Kevin's lap?

That was scripted.

Okay.

But when he says, Angela, and I say no, and he says, Oscar, and Oscar says, no, thank you.

Yeah.

That was was not in the script.

I love that moment so much.

That is so great.

Well, guys, what's going to happen is that D'Angelo is going to dunk the ball, and then the whole, what do you call that thing, basketball hoop thing falls on him and he's going to get sent to the hospital.

The whole thing teeters over on top of him,

which would be very, very bad because those things are really heavy.

Fan question from Mag C in Yorkville, Illinois.

How did you guys guys do the scene when D'Angelo does the basketball dunk?

Well, everyone, this was our stunt gone horribly wrong.

Yeah.

When Greg was in the studio with us, we asked him if he remembered this moment.

He did.

Here's what he had to say.

I still think about that constantly.

It was horrible.

And, you know, I wasn't running the show then.

Paul was.

And I was coming in to watch, and there was Will Farrell.

And the joke was that he was going to dunk this basketball in the warehouse.

And our special effects guys had rigged a harness for him and a rope and a pulley.

And their idea was he's going to run, he's going to jump as high as he can jump.

And then at the very apex of his jump, they were going to yank on this clothesline and he was going to seamlessly continue his

arc until he was tall enough to dunk and that it would look like he could dunk the ball.

And I had enormous reservations about this, you know, I just from the physics of it.

I was like, I can't understand.

Yeah, you know, the idea that his mass is going to, just as it, just before it starts to go down,

they're going to like seamlessly keep it going and you're not going to be able to tell.

I, so I was very skeptical, you know, and like the first take, he jumps and then he, you know, starts to fall and they start pulling on this thing, you know, and it just looks like this weird up and down thing that is not possible.

And then they're like, no, no, you got to pull harder.

You didn't pull hard enough.

And so the second, you know, the next take, he runs, they yank on this thing, and he's just pile-driven into the rib of the basketball with sorrible crash.

And we're like, oh my God, you know, he was so nice to come help us out, do a few episodes.

And it was just, it was such a disaster.

I remember it.

I will never forget it.

It was so shocking.

It was crazy, Angela.

Like my brain couldn't wrap itself around it.

Like, I didn't understand how he got from the ground up there so fast.

And I remember just being stunned.

Well, Randy said that the stunt assistants pulled so hard that he flew up much higher than they planned.

His knee.

got rammed into the basketball hoop and he got a really bad cut on his leg, like just below his knee.

We had to bring our set medic out and all that stuff.

Randy said he was going to call a rap on it and just be like, forget it.

We're not doing this again.

And he said, Will pulled him aside and he said, Hey, listen, I don't want you to blame anyone.

I don't want you to punish anyone.

I am fine.

I am not in pain.

I'd like to try it again.

I mean, what?

Yeah.

Will Farrell.

I know.

I would be like, I am going home, but I think that like all the time.

I watch people like tough it out in situations and I'm like, I'm out.

Goodbye.

Randy said he allowed one more take at Will's request.

And that time they auto-corrected.

Yeah, they kind of lifted him and it never really ended up being what they needed.

But at that point, they were like, we're calling it.

We're just going to have to go with the footage that we have.

Randy said that at rap, he walked Will Farrell to his car and he was just like apologizing profusely and saying, like, do you want to go to the ER?

Like, what can we do for this cut on your leg?

And he said that Will looked at him and quoted a famous line from Monty Python and just said, Tis but a scratch, merely a flesh wound.

And he assured him, he said, I'll be fine.

I'll be on time for work tomorrow morning.

Don't you worry.

Wow.

I know.

Well, I was curious about what was in the shooting draft for this moment.

And this is what it says.

An ambulance pulls out of the parking lot, lights flashing, sirens blaring.

Everyone is stunned.

Daryl is worried and says, Will he be okay?

And Andy says, the EMT said probably not.

Oh my gosh.

This would have taken us to a tag scene at the end.

D'Angelo is going to show up in a hospital gown with his head bandage.

He's speaking gibberish.

Jim is going to ask Aaron to call 911.

One of my favorite moments is when Aaron says, who should I say is calling?

I know.

And Jim goes, Aaron.

And there are two things I have a question about.

One, where is Pam in this tag?

I don't know.

You know, originally, D'Angelo sits down at Pam's computer and starts typing.

So, I couldn't be there.

That's why one reason why I'm not there is because he was going to come type.

And, you know, I don't know if you saw this in the shooting draft, but the very end of this episode, the camera was going to swing over

and we were going to see what D'Angelo had typed.

Yes.

And even though he was speaking gibberish, he would have typed, Jenna, you have it, right?

I have it.

This is what would have been the last shot.

Please Please help.

I am of sound mind and I am a prisoner in my body.

My family is arranging to have power of attorney over me and intends to issue a DNR order.

This is not in my interest.

Please contact my lawyer, Fred Nestor.

His number is in my BlackBerry, which is on my dresser to the left of my watch.

Yeah, yeah.

That's how it would have ended.

Instead, it ends with them sort of escorting him out.

You guys, I couldn't keep it together in this scene.

You fully see me laugh.

You see me smile and laugh

because,

you know, they wrote out a few gibberish words for Will, but then he mostly just started to make stuff up.

Yes.

And it was a little different each time.

And I couldn't keep it together.

I'm fully unprofessional at the end of this episode.

I'll put it in stories, but I totally break.

Well, I've got a time code for you, thanks to Nick N.

in Minnesota.

Did someone else see you?

Yeah, it's 21 minutes and 25 seconds.

And then almost right after that, Nick pointed out at 2135,

right after Will makes a sneezing noise, you can see John tilt his head down to the floor to try and hide his smile.

But his body language says that he broke into hysterical laughter the very moment the scene cuts.

Well, before we say goodbye to this episode, Jenna, I wanted to read you an article I found in the New York Times by Dave Itzkoff.

It came out April 6th of 2011.

He had come to set to interview Will Farrell about being on the office and about what this meant for the show with Michael Scott leaving.

You and I have shared during this time there was a lot of uncertainty.

Mm-hmm.

Well, here's what he said.

What the office producers may lack in clarity or candor about their vision for the show's future, they amply make up for in nervousness.

Asked a few questions about a possible replacement for Mr.

Corell, Mr.

Lieberstein became agitated.

He started, stopped, and retracted his responses responses multiple times before settling on the following answer.

We have decided to go past Steve with the cast we have

because of the cast we have.

Even so, the office is front-loading its May 19th finale with guest stars like Ricky Gervais and Will Arnett while ratcheting up anticipation for an announcement of Michael Scott's full-time replacement.

Well, I'll tell you this, lady, in anticipation of finishing out this season and moving into next season, I have been digging as much as I can to try to find information on the behind-the-scenes scuttlebutt.

And I've found out some kind of fun things and I'm excited to share, but I'm going to wait until we kick off season eight.

Oh my gosh, Jenna, I love it when you get a bee in your bonnet.

I'm like, I remember a lot of things, but then I think there's things I don't know and I...

I want to know.

Oh, well, I can't wait.

I will be looking forward to that.

I will say this.

I did get pulled into Paul's office for a one-on-one where he asked my opinion of who I thought should be the next manager.

Really?

Oh, you've got to give all that up.

I'll share.

I'll share for season eight.

Well, that was Inner Circle.

And guess what?

Next week, we're going to be back with

Will Farrell.

He's going to join us and he's going to talk about his arc on the show.

You guys have a great week.

We love you.

See you then.

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.

Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey.

Our show is executive produced by Cody Fisher.

Our producer is Cassie Jerkins, our sound engineer is Sam Kiefer, and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubba Coe.

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.

For ad-free versions of Office Ladies, go to StitcherPremium.com.

For a free one-month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code Office.

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